Franciscan Health System hospitals in Tacoma, Federal Way and Lakewood have again received the prestigious Partner for Change Award for their success in reducing mercury, pollution, and landfill-destined waste.
The award was presented to St. Joseph Medical Center, St. Francis Hospital and St. Clare Hospital on May 19 by Practice Greenhealth, a national membership organization for health care facilities committed to environmentally responsible operations. It is one of seven Environmental Excellence Awards given each year by Practice Greenhealth to recognize outstanding environmental achievements in health care.
This is the third time in four years that Franciscan hospitals have received the national award for environmental excellence.
Rozi Arends, the value-analysis manager for Franciscan who supervises the organization’s waste-reduction programs, said environmental excellence aligns with the organization’s mission to create healthier communities.
“We always strive to be good stewards of our limited resources,” said Arends, who added that Franciscan’s increased reliance on recyclable containers for used needles has reduced its plastics waste alone by 82,000 pounds a year.
In 2008, St. Joseph, St. Francis and St. Clare also recycled, reused or donated 3,526,420 pounds of materials that otherwise would most likely have ended up in landfills.
“Franciscan Health System is a successful model of how health facilities can develop and implement pollution prevention programs to greatly improve the health of its patients, staff and community,” said Bob Jarboe, executive director of Practice Greenhealth.
The Partner for Change Award recognizes health care facilities that continuously improve and expand upon their mercury elimination, waste reduction, and pollution prevention programs. At a minimum, facilities applying for this award must be recycling 10 percent of their total waste, have a mercury elimination program in place with a plan for total elimination, and have developed other successful pollution prevention programs.
“We are so pleased to have our accomplishments recognized again at a national level,” said Mike Liepman, vice president of Guest Services and Facilities for the Franciscan Health System. “We are committed to reducing our environmental impact and we are continually monitoring our progress to improve our performance. Receiving this award is confirmation that we are on the right track.”
The Practice Greenhealth Environmental Excellence Awards were presented May 19 in Chicago in conjunction with CleanMed 2009, a global conference for environmental leaders in health care. Practice Greenhealth will sponsor the planting of 100 trees in Haiti for each award presented. The organization is online at www.practicegreenhealth.org.
Franciscan Health System, which has 7,200 employees in Pierce, King and Kitsap counties, is affiliated with Denver-based Catholic Health Initiatives, the second-largest Catholic health system in the nation.
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